


ink and paper

by orphan_account



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: Embarrassment, F/F, Nico Dying Twice, briquests
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-13
Updated: 2015-09-13
Packaged: 2018-04-20 13:34:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4789139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nico's got it bad for the cute waitress at the dingy hole-in-the-wall café and she has no idea how to deal with it besides sitting in the corner like a creeper.</p>
            </blockquote>





	ink and paper

**Author's Note:**

> people besides bri need to start giving me prompts because otherwise my entire account is just gonna be bri having a field day

A tiny black-haired girl sat bent over in a dimly lit corner of the café, drumming her fingers against the mustard-yellow plastic of the table. An eyesore, if you asked her, and let’s not get started on the atrocious colors someone had slapped on all four walls. No wonder the café was so deserted nearly all hours of the day. But for this girl, all the garish neon paint in the world couldn’t get her to slide out of the café.

Because Nico Yazawa, school idol extraordinaire, had her steel-melting gaze fixed on a certain waitress flitting from table to table like a hummingbird. Much as she would’ve liked to deny it to any of her teammates, Nico was completely and utterly infatuated.

With Kotori.

At the slightest possibility of a glance over to Nico’s apparently inconspicuous table, she lowered her eyes and busied herself rummaging through her bag. Her? Watching Kotori like a hawk? Perish the thought! Not to mention it would totally trash her reputation as a cool, indifferent, idol, wholeheartedly dedicated to the music she put out with no time to pursue something as silly as _romance_.

Fingers brushed against the edges of piled paper, and after ensuring nobody was about to notice Nico’s dreamy staring, she sifted through sheets until she located exactly what she wanted: an autograph.

Specifically, Kotori Minami’s autograph.

Pen on paper had trailed swirls of ink across the paper, leaving what was, in Nico’s opinion, the most elegant and dignified signature one could leave. Kotori’s signature was her most prized possession, a little token of what could possibly be.

“Nico?”

A strangled shout bounced off the walls of the café, followed by a thud against the linoleum tiles. Nico’s unmoving body was curled up sideways in a fetal position. Maybe if she just stayed here long enough, Kotori would declare her dead and float away so she didn’t have to live with the soul-crushing embarrassment of caressing her autograph like a newborn child.

Absentmindedly, Nico started to wonder what trailing her thumb down Kotori’s soft cheek would feel like. Surely it would be infinitely less pathetic than running her fingers across a sheet of worn paper and ink in much the same manner.

“Nico! Are you alright? I’m sorry if I scared you.” Kotori’s voice rang clear in her ears, brushing away all hope Nico might have had of being left to her devices.

“W-what?” Nico squawked, scrambling to her feet. “Nico’s fine! Just stopping by for a…a snack before rehearsal for the big show! Hahaha. Ha.”

“Big show?” Kotori cocked her head in an adorably confused way, forehead creasing in worry. “We don't have any rehearsals for the upcoming live until next week. Did you hit your head a bit too hard?”

Nico started to go hot all over. Her sweaty hands curled up in tight fists. “Oh! Yeah, heh, silly me! I think I’ll just—”

Kotori was staring in wonder at the page exposed to the air on the tabletop. “This is…” she gave Nico a doe-eyed look. “Is this my autograph?”

At this point Nico was starting to choke on the very oxygen that keep her heart beating - like a rabbit, as fate would have it at the moment. “What! Th-that’s not—I mean, that is…I mean to—yeah.” Red was starting to creep up to the tips of her ears, and she decided staring into the floor until the white tiles melted before her very eyes was infinitely easier than meeting Kotori’s gaze.

“That's so sweet!”

“What.” Nico glanced up, only to find Kotori’s own face pink-tinted and a smile blossoming from ear to ear. Kotori’s giggles soared clear through the air like Cupid’s arrow, lodged in Nico’s heart and twisting.

“Nico, I can’t believe you’d keep my autograph so carefully! It’s in such good condition and everything…" Kotori paused. “It’s like you really care about it.”

“I.” The words previously bubbling up in Nico’s throat flopped over and died.

Another Kotori giggle, so typical of the younger girl and yet so heart-wrenchingly adorable every time. “I think it’s really sweet, at least.” She leaned forward and kissed Nico square on the tip of her Rudolph-red nose, and promptly danced off to serve a young couple who had just seated themselves on the far side of the restaurant, leaving Nico to deal with what had just happened.

A girl - _the_ girl, the one she was infatuated with to a fault - had just kissed her! On the nose, granted, but it was a kiss nonetheless.

Paper crumpled as Nico clutched Kotori’s autograph to her heart. “Oh my god.”

Later, an ambulance would be called to resuscitate the girl lying passed out with a smile painted on her still-red face in the corner of an obscure café, but for now she was simply lightheaded with bliss as her knees buckled beneath her.


End file.
